Making Memories of Christmas Past

Are there some new Christmas traditions?  Christmas has a great tradition of 'memories past', stories of longing for childhood activities gone by.  There's good news out there:  here are some new ideas that can form family traditions and set the foundation for 'memories past'. 1. Matching family pyjamas The entire family will look adorable in their festive jammies - plus it'll make for a super cute photo-op in the morning! 2. The reverse Advent Calendar Something has to be put into the 'calendar box' each day and it gets donated to a food bank or charity at Christmas 3. Tic-Tac candy cane plants Plant mint Tic-Tacs in a tub of sugar and get the kids to 'water' them with glitter every day.  Then replace them with candy canes which have magically 'grown' 4. Capture the magic Upload a picture of your living room, kitchen, hallway (wherever you keep the tree) and the folks at Capture the Magic allow you to superimpose Santa into the snap! 5. The Christmas Box This box contains small Christmas-themed gifts, decorations and activities for the family to do over the month 6. Elf on Shelf The elf gets moved around every night and has to be found in the morning 7. North Pole Breakfast   December 1st or whichever day the Christmas tree gets decorated, the family has an all-treats breakfast.  Pictured here are strawberry Santas.   There are lots of great new traditions - looks like Christmas will continue to be a heart-warming time of year for young families.

Smithville - Our Train Heritage

Our last post was about Strasburg in the rain.  It must have been my fate as 2 days ago I found some railroad history down the road from my Grimsby town in Niagara.  

This is the Smithville Railway Station.  As the first one,  built in 1895, was hit by lightning and burned, this one replaced it in 1903.  It was built by the TH&B Railway who built a rail line from Toronto to Buffalo.  Today it houses the West Lincoln Historical Society who owns it and restored it.  More history at:  http://www.wlhs.info.

We've got three versions of the station. The first one has a touch of HDR treatment to bring out the sky and roof details.  I decided on script for the second to tell the many stories that a railway station represents.  The third has the addition a faint imprint of a postcard, to represent the sense of excitement of a trip that a rail trip would mean back then.